[8429] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Voice telephony on the Internet?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ari Ollikainen)
Thu Nov 18 14:17:36 1993
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 11:16:26 PST
From: ari@es.net (Ari Ollikainen)
To: wcsv2k@ccs.carleton.ca, craig@aland.bbn.com
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
> From postman@lists.psi.com Thu Nov 18 10:42:04 1993
> To: "Bill St. Arnaud" <wcsv2k@ccs.carleton.ca>
> Cc: com-priv@psi.com
> Subject: Re: Voice telephony on the Internet?
> From: Craig Partridge <craig@aland.bbn.com>
> Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 10:38:31 -0800
> Sender: craig@aland.bbn.com
> Content-Length: 1885
>
>
> Is anybody looking to see if any of the proposed IPng's can carry
> constant bit rate traffic? How about the router's, etc etc? What are
> the issues in migrating from a store and forward to real time or
> hybird architecture?
>
> Bill:
>
> The answer is an emphatic yes, folks are doing voice (and video)
> conferencing over the Internet using UDP/IP and TCP/IP and have been doing
> so for a few years. This conferencing is both small scale (between two persons)
> and wide scale (delivery to hundreds of people simultaneously). For instance,
> the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), transmits its quarterly meetings
> (both voice and video) all over the Internet for folks who can't come to the
> meetings in person. The last meeting (early this month) had 600+ listeners
> from all over the globe.
>
And several discussion lists exist, among them rem-conf@es.net and
MBONE@ISI.EDU which cover the subject (protocols for audio/video,
conferencing, use of multicast, associated hardware and software
developments, etc...)
> I believe the most commonly used software is the VAT software, which
> can be anonymously FTPed from ftp.ee.lbl.gov but other software exists.
> Some of the this software is compatible with VAT (e.g., NEVOT), while other
> software implements other experimental protocols (e.g., DEC is doing some
> interesting work with video conferencing).
>
The rem-conf archive(s) on nic.es.net in
pub/mailing-lists/mail-archive/rem-conf and
pub/ietf/rem-conf contain a goodly amount of information on
the subject as well as provide a record of the activities of the
IETF Packet Audio/Video Transport Working Group.
[ Craig's BookPlug deleted...]
> Personally, I believe the key results of this research to date are:
> (1) applications like voice can adapt surprisingly well to variations in
> delay; (2) multicasting services in the network are tremendously important
> for effective conferencing; and (3) performance would improve if the network
> was able to at least partially isolate real-time traffic from regular
> traffic, but the isolation probably does not need to be very strict.
And some people have developed interesting ways to take advantage of
what already exists, as in the following included message:
>From rem-conf-request@es.net Thu Sep 30 13:58:39 1993
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 93 13:30:47 PDT
>From: vinay@eit.COM (Vinay Kumar)
To: mbone@isi.edu
Subject: mmphone
Cc: rem-conf@es.net
Content-Length: 1247
[ I Apologize if you are seeing two copies of this mail ].
In my spare time, i wrote a simple script called "mmphone". The purspose is
to facilitate users of vat/wb/nv to do Unicast point-to-point conversations,
without having to use "MBONE Audio" feed ( i am not trying to advocate use
of unicast over multicast, please use multicast as often as possible !).
"mmphone" is a simple form-filling program for point-to-point conference call
initiation and setup. To initiate a session, just type:
mmphone
This will send out a MIME E-Mail to the other destination site.
At the receiving end, if you do not have a MIME E-Mail reader, then simply
save the email message received as an ascii file and type:
mmphone <filename>
This will crank up appropriate wb/nv/vat tools and connect to the site that
initiated the call.
At the receiving side, this will also work with Bellcore's MIME parser
"metamail" if the ".mailcap" is properly configured. (Instructions are in
the distribution).
I have found this tool fairly useful, you can use it as well by ftp'ing
from:
eitech.eit.com (192.100.58.2)
under
~ftp/pub/share/mmphone.tar.Z
Please be polite in sending your comments, bug-reports etc..to me.
--
Vinay Kumar
vinay@collage.eit.com
-----------
>
> Craig Partridge
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ari Ollikainen ari@es.net National Energy Research Supercomputer Center
ESnet (Energy Sciences Network) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
510-423-5962 FAX:510-423-8744 P.O. BOX 5509, MS L-561, Livermore, CA 94550
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
